


What let me to where I stand

by guety



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Born To Shine Zine, Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, World Champion Katsuki Yuuri, a bit of character study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 10:52:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15047273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guety/pseuds/guety
Summary: Yuuri goes back to Detroit with Victor and makes peace with his past.Written for Yuuri zine Born to shine! Yuuri is my favorite character so I was super happy to be part of this! Thank you mods for having me and thanks to everyone who supported the zine! :D





	What let me to where I stand

When Yuuri decided to leave Detroit and go back home, he felt like he was putting an end to a chapter of his life he wasn't entirely proud of. After the disaster that was his first Grand Prix Final, he needed a fresh start. Once he graduated, there wasn't anything tying him to the city and he wasn't leaving anything behind - except Phichit, but he would soon move back to Thailand too - so at that moment he thought he would never return to Detroit. He hadn't expected to be driving among its streets again barely a year after leaving, and certainly not with Victor Nikiforov as  passenger.

It was early May, right at the start of the off season, which meant it was time for ice shows. The current tour had brought them to the USA, from Chicago to New York, with Detroit being the second stop. They weren't needed at the venue for rehearsals until later that week, but they had decided to fly in a couple of days in advance, at Victor's insistence.

"I've been to Detroit once, but I didn't get to see anything," he had said when they were planning the tour, "so I'm glad I can go again with a proper guide like you!"

"There's nothing much to see," Yuuri had replied, "Detroit is really not that interesting,"

"It is interesting to me, it's where you lived for 5 years," Victor had said easily, and Yuuri had found it hard to keep arguing after that. Truth was, he just wasn't sure how he felt about going back to the city where he had lived for five years, a city that had seen a few of his successes and way too many of his failures. However, he couldn't deny that Victor's interest made him happy. It wasn't as if he didn't know of Yuuri's past fiascos, so showing him around the city wouldn't make much of a difference.

* * *

   
He had originally planned to take Victor to the typical touristy  places but, rather than that, the first thing Victor wanted to visit was Yuuri's old campus. It was bustling with life when they arrived, students coming and going everywhere, carrying thick books and loaded backpacks. The buildings, the trees… everything was exactly as Yuuri remembered. He felt simultaneously out of place and completely at home. The smell of coffee from the Starbucks at the Student Center Building made him remember the evenings spent there cramming with Phichit, and their all-nighters to finish a paper on time. There had been plenty of stressful times and frustrations, especially the first years when his English wasn't as fluent and he had a hard time following lectures, but a lot of good moments as well. He hadn't missed university ever since he graduated but, as he showed Victor around the campus, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic. While they walked, he told Victor about his daily life in Detroit, his study routines and the pranks Phichit and him played on each other. Victor smiled widely as he listened to Yuuri and, before he realized it, Yuuri was smiling as well.

* * *

 

The second place Victor wanted to visit made Yuuri much more anxious. Many of the best memories of his time in Detroit were associated with his old rink, but so were a lot of the worst ones. Looking at the exterior of the building from the parking lot filled him with a familiar sense of comfort– that no matter where he was, even if the Ice Castle at Hasetsu was miles away, the ice was there for him– but also with dread. Aside from Phichit, he hadn't talked to any of his ex-rinkmates in over a year, and he didn't know what he was  supposed to say when he met them. Would they think he didn't care about them, considering he hadn't made any attempts to contact them?

Probably noticing  his hesitation, Victor took his hand. "Shall we go in?" he asked.

Yuuri took a deep breath and squeezed Victor's hand. He wasn't the same person he was a year ago. It was time to face some of his regrets. "Yeah, let's go."

* * *

 

Victor didn’t stop grinning on the way back to the city. Yuuri tried to focus on driving and kept his eyes on the road, but he didn’t miss the amused glances that Victor kept throwing in his direction.

“What is it?” Yuuri asked eventually, starting to feel irritated.

“Nothing, just that you never told me you were so popular among your rinkmates,” Victor replied, barely hiding the teasing tone from his voice.

Yuuri felt his face heat up. “I’m not popular, you are,” he rebutted, “they went crazy only because you were there.”

“Oh really?” Out of the corner of his eyes, Yuuri could see that Victor was arching his eyebrows, “but all the young ones seemed much more interested in your autograph than mine.”

Yuuri couldn’t even argue with that. He hadn’t known what to expect when they entered the rink, but the warm and welcoming greeting he got from his ex-rinkmates was beyond his wildest imagination. It had been almost overwhelming, having so many people talking to him and requesting pictures, but at the same time, he felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, as if he had been released from a burden he hadn’t realized he was carrying. Still, hearing them talk about how him setting a new World Record had inspired them was just strange. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt or even how he should feel.

“We’re almost here,” he said to end the conversation. Victor kept smiling, but he didn’t press on the subject.

For the third visit of the day, Victor had asked to see Yuuri's favorite place in Detroit.

“Hmm, I can see why you like it here,” Victor contemplated when they got off the car. Belle Isle Park was very quiet that afternoon, barely any people walking around. They walked hand in hand, crossing the bridge on Lake Tacoma to look at Canada across the river.

“I used to come here when I needed to get away from everything,” Yuuri reminisced. Feeling all the nature surrounding him always helped to calm his mind when he as feeling anxious or homesick. Somehow, looking at the river always made him feel at home.

“It reminds me a bit of Hasetsu here,” Victor said, as if guessing his thoughts, “despite being so different,”

Yuuri leaned on Victor’s shoulder. It was strange standing there together, at the same spot where Yuuri had stood alone so many times before. Just like the campus and the rink, everything around the park was as he remembered it: the quiet, the scent of nature, it all felt as if time hadn’t passed at all. And yet, it seemed completely different. He felt different.  
Looking back on it, the five years he lived in Detroit had been good years. There had been hard times, but as he visited all those places full of memories, it had been mostly the good ones that came to mind. His time in the city hadn't ended the way he would have wanted, but all those experiences, good and bad, had shaped him into the person he was now.

Victor put an arm around Yuuri’s shoulders. “Thank you for showing me around today,” he said. “I’m glad I got to see all these places that mean something to you.”

Yuuri turned his head to look at him. It was a clear day, the late spring sun making all the colors vibrant and saturated. Victor looked radiant, his eyes the same bright blue as the sky. It is wasn’t for him, Yuuri wouldn’t have come to Detroit so soon, but doing so had allowed him to see things in a new perspective. All his shortcomings and mistakes had helped him grow and redeem himself, had allowed him to become the current World Champion. They had brought him to this moment.

“I’m glad we came as well.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I love feedback and comments, and feel free to follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/idrinkmyfriends) so we can scream about how Yuuri is the best together.


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